


Book of Empty Memories

by Arya_Rayne



Series: Box of Ashes [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV, RWBY
Genre: Blake is a rogue, Box of Ashes AU, Nanamo wrote a letter, Ruby is a rogue, Ruby is an Au Ra, Summer Rose is a WoL, Warning - a book gets strangled, testing character personalities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24192253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arya_Rayne/pseuds/Arya_Rayne
Summary: Merlwyb cannot remember the woman who was Ruby's mother. As with the rest of the Warriors of Light, her name died upon the Admiral's lips and when trying to recall what this woman looked like, Merlwyb could see naught but a blinding light. The woman was lost to memory, but there was one book that could answer the questions that raged in the Admiral's mind. If only the Roegadyn woman would open the book.
Series: Box of Ashes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746028
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	Book of Empty Memories

_To Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn, Chief Admiral of Limsa Lominsa,_

_I hope this letter finds you well, my friend, and I appreciate the last letter you sent me. It pains me to admit that we are both far too busy to meet in person at current. Alas there is naught to be done, with the rising of the beast tribes and the influx of adventurers._

_Speaking of adventurers, I am sure you didn’t miss the messenger of this letter and Raubahn’s as well. She greeted me under the Sultantree with the name of “Scarlett Blyssansawyn” and claimed she were an adventurer from beyond Eorzea. Had you not sent your letter prior to her arrival in Ul’dah, I may have called her out for her deception, though at the time, I too was using an alias to travel Thanalan without notice. Is Ruby truly so desperate for answers that she would lie to a nation, as well as risk her life using a weapon she has so clearly never touched in her life? I worry for your niece, Admiral. I remember the few times she has accompanied you here to Ul’dah, and her bright nature, but that seems to have dimmed much since the Calamity. What has happened to her, dear friend?_

_Alas, I will have to wait for your answer. I do apologize for letting Raubahn send her to Limsa and Gridania as an envoy. I am well aware of why you haven’t let young Ruby travel via airship, but, if only to make you faster aware of her exploits, I allowed her return by air. I pray she at least came to your office with the same smile she left Ul’dah with. When I had a moment to speak with her, she admitted that she didn’t know if you were aware of how far she went to hide her identity. I did remind her to apologize to Mistress Momodi, though this was after she fought with the ruffians who stole my crown, and, if the report by Papashan is correct, defeated a black cloaked man who summoned a voidsent._

_I suspect that our friends with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn will take an interest in her. Ruby has the Echo, does she not? That is, at least, what I have come to suspect. I worry for her, but I know that my worry pales in comparison to yours. She is a bright light, even with the darkness that shades her and her father’s past. You have done well to raise her._

_Your friend,_  
Nanamo Ul Namo,  
Sultana of Ul’dah

The letter was scrunched up in the middle, gloved fist curling around it after it had been read. The room was silent for a few moments before Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn closed her eyes and placed the letter on her desk and then spun on her heel and walked the few steps to the window. The afternoon sun outside was warm and welcoming, far cry from the frustration that the Roegadyn woman felt as she let the emotions elicited by the Sultana’s letter wash over her. There was one soldier of the Maelstrom left in her office, the rest having been sent out to complete various tasks after Ruby had left the room, just minutes prior, after delivering the letter that the Admiral had just read.

“You are dismissed for today, Captain,” Merlwyb spoke, not looking at the man. A click of boots against stone indicated the salute given, before footsteps began to retreat, only to halt when the Admiral spoke again.

“And find Jacke Swallow and send him up here. I wish to talk to him about what he is teaching his… _guildmates._ ”

“Yes Admiral!”

Now truly alone in the room, the Admiral faded away, leaving only Merlwyb, former pirate, and aunt and god-mother to one Ruby, a child of a woman she could not remember; a fact that had plagued the Roegadyn woman for the past five years. _What has happened to her?_ The words written by the Sultana struck a chord. What indeed? No one could remember Ruby’s mother, and it was only because the absence of this woman was so painfully obvious that Merlwyb was even able to remember that Ruby had a mother whom she had known.

“Seven hells…” the woman hissed, not for the first time that day, fist clenching at her side. It infuriated her to no end; that she had forgotten someone whom she had clearly been close enough to be entrusted with this child. Who was this woman? Her sister? A close friend? Merlwyb’s eyes flickered over to the bookshelf on the wall, specifically to a worn leather-bound book. It hadn’t been opened since she had become Admiral. It was her old personal journal from her time as a pirate. Kept sparsely for over fifteen years before she had closed it, and at least nine of those years would have had Ruby’s mother within, because Merlwyb could remember Ruby growing up.

The woman walked over to the bookcase and picked up the book, staring at it with a bland expression. It should have been easy; just open the book, read the entries inside. Answer all the questions that had plagued her since the Battle at Carteanau, and finally be able to answer Ruby. Her hands didn’t move to open the book though; she just kept looking at it.

“Ye realise that if ye keep stranglin’ that there book, it ain’t gonna survive fer long, right?”

Eyes widening slightly, Merlwyb quickly put the book back. She hadn’t even realised that her hands had been gripping the book tighter. Then she registered who had spoken and her frustration returned as she spun on her heel and took the few steps to the leader of the Rogues Guild who was leaning against the wall casually.

“You will tell me precisely what you told Ruby before she left for Ul’dah, Swallow,” she growled. “And Navigator preserve you as I decide whether or not to shoot you.”

“Now, now Admiral, she was perfectly sa_” Jacke started, only to cut off when he found himself pushed against the wall with a gun at his throat. Merlwyb looked like a hunter staring down her prey. The rogue held up his hands in surrender, hoping that the action would make the Roegadyn woman back down, but Annihilator only pressed harder into his neck.

“I let you convince Ruby to use a false name,” Merlwyb growled, her white-silver eyes narrowing. “I even let you pick her alias away from my ears. I did not let you send her to Ul’dah with a sword and shield, you said she would be safe. Fighting a voidsent and a bandit group using a weapon she has no experience with is not my definition of safe. I trust her knives are back in her hands as she heads to Gridania.”

“’appy to know ye have such faith in me, Admiral,” Jacke said, swallowing around the pistol barrel as the Hyuran man met the furious gaze of Merlwyb unflinchingly. “I sent Blake wit’ ‘er. As I said, she was perfectly safe in the city o’ gold.”

“Blake Belladonna?” the Roegadyn checked, her eyes narrowing further. When Jacke nodded Merlwyb stayed silent as she stared at the guildmaster, before speaking again in a quieter voice. “You realise then that you could have sparked political outrage had our young Miqo’te been discovered. What, pray tell, would the Syndicate say to that? Limsa is sending spies to Ul’dah? I, the Admiral, am trying to undermine the city perhaps?”

“Those two girls ain’t nothin’ less than the best rogues I ‘ave ever trained,” the man replied firmly, blue eyes not flinching as the pistol at his throat shifted. He wasn’t too worried; he had noticed that Merlwyb’s finger had left the trigger. A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Unsurprisingly, the Admiral made no motion to change the position she and Jacke were currently in as she called in the Yellowjacket who had a report.

“What news, Sergeant?” Merlwyb asked, her eyes shifting to the woman who walked in, challenging glint to her expression, as if daring the soldier to comment on the situation she had walked into.

“That adventurer who entered the city a few days ago, Summer Rose,” the Yellowjacket reported. “Baderon has notified that she has returned from a conflict with a stone golem.”

Merlwyb straightened, Annihilator falling away from Jacke as her hand fell to her side. The Admiral kept her expression carefully neutral, though something sank into the pit of her stomach, and a new question to ask her niece formed in her mind. That would need to wait however, as she thanked the soldier for the report and then dismissed her back to her duties. Silence fell between the Hyur and the Roegadyn for a few moments.

“May I make an unwanted suggestion?”

Merlwyb was about to shoot back an irritated response, but Jacke wasn’t waiting for an answer. He walked back to the book that the woman had put back on the shelf. The Admiral cursed the man’s memory.

“Ye need to be askin’ yerself why yer afraid o’ this book.”

Frustration returned as Jacke walked up to her and handed her the journal. He looked Merlwyb in the eye, and the expression he had on his face made the woman pause.

“And if ye cannae do that, I’ll burn the thing for ye.”

“No need Jacke,” Merlwyb said, not looking at the man as she walked back over to the shelf and stared at the book. “It’s just a book of empty memories. I shall be in Maelstrom command; you can go check on your newest guildmate.”

She left the room and was not there to hear Jacke’s final words.

_“Empty because the book itself is empty…? Or empty because there is a name in there that you no longer remember?”_

**Author's Note:**

> Annnnd welcome to Box of Ashes! A series literally born from me making Summer Rose in Final Fantasy XIV and remembering that she's dead in RWBY, listerning to Baderon speak about the Warriors of Light and then taking a few minutes of questing, then the next day in class at uni this thought punches it's way into my tired mind while listening to a lecture about how people think..... "What if Summer was a Warrior of Light?"
> 
> Thus this series was created. Merlwyb was added to Ruby's strange family as god-mother/aunt after much deliberation on how Ruby fit into Limsa, working out how old Ruby was during the events of Carteanau, and then researching what was going down in Limsa ten years PRIOR to the Calamity. All in all, a lot happened, Ruby was 10, and at the other side of this all, Ruby was raised between the Upright Thieves, a bunch of pirates, the people of Gridania and the noble class of Ul'dah. (though that last one doesn't happen until AFTER the Battle of Carteanau).
> 
> This particular story on the other hand was me asking "do written records exist of the Warriors of Light?" and the ending was me not finding a satisfactory answer. Speculation is welcome! Also 100% testing personality in writing, critiques welcome! I also didn't open the book in the end because.... I decided that the knowledge if Summer's name was written down would be too damaging to the story that I am intending to write. That shall be posted when I can post it.
> 
> In the mean time, feel free to ask me questions here in the comments, or head on over to my tumblr for this series! Shoot me some asks there too! https://admiral-merlwyb-bloefhiswyn.tumblr.com/ It's new, made for this series, but expect images relating to this AU series, random ideas that I have, snippets of conversations that don't fit in the fanfics but belong under the Box of Ashes AU tag, and sneak peeks into chapters and stories! I'll try and respond to asks in character over there ^^


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